Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Do we all have a "calling?"




You know those people who are clearly doing what they are "called" to do. You can just tell. My question is: do we all have a calling? How do we find out what that is? Do circumstances like finances or relationships have the potential to make us miss out on that calling? Or, if we are committed, if we trust and go for it, is there some guarantee that we can live out whatever it is we are called to do, assuming we know what that is in the first place?

It's a question I've been asking God. What am I supposed to be doing? Honestly, if you ask me what my calling is, I have no idea. When people say "What's your passion?" my honest answer is that I don't have one.

I've taken a couple "spiritual gifts" tests. My results indicate that my top gifts are "faith" and "hospitality." Let's take those one at a time:

Faith - definitely a gift. There is no way I could believe in a truly good God who wants the very best for me even if it seems otherwise without faith. And that faith is not something I conjured up or willed to happen on my own. It was given to me. No doubt about it. Now, what do I do with that.

Hospitality - I love that idea. I love welcoming people, cooking for them. I yearn to make them feel comfortable. The hitch is I live in a tiny home and I typically have my shirt only halfway on while I simultaneously wipe a butt and make a peanut butter sandwich and my baby crawls around covered in avocado and dog hair. Sometimes all that makes being hospitable seem overwhelming.
Pre-marriage, pre-kids. If I'm honest, I loved this life, except I yearned for ..... what I have now.

It seems every time I try to take on something extra that seems worthy, I get thwarted. I don't get scheduled. E-mails don't get returned. I'm thanked, but they don't need me right now. In a way it feels like God keeps telling me what I'm supposed to be doing right now and I just keep questioning...."Really, that's ALL? And He keeps answering by blocking me every time I try to take on something else. It seems my answer, at least at this point in my life, is this:
Mom, wife, mom, wife, mom, wife. That's it. Nothing else. I know some women are mom, wife AND ________ fill in the blank with something noble. Apparently, all I can handle, and barely handle might I add, is mom, wife.


Can we just live in this photo?

Why am I not just OK with that? And why, if that's "all" I have to do, am I not knocking it out of the park? 

Also pre-kids. I have nothing left to give for dogs right now. It's just another being that needs me.
Growth is a process, but here is something I'm working on. If I lessen the mom/wife role in my head, I treat it as something I don't have to work on. It becomes something that gets in the way of some other thing that I want to do. That's when I start grasping for something else to make me significant, whether that's working or volunteering or sewing aprons or gardening. But if I can accept that my "calling" right now is mom/wife, it's easier to take on the challenges as a growth and refinement process instead of view them as an annoyance. I can give of myself more selflessly if I just surrender to the idea that what I'm doing is sacred, even if it's wiping up pee. 

Just me? Is it easy for you to just roll with the mom/wife role? Or do you buck against that defining you? Also, how the f--k did those pioneer women do it? I wonder that all the time.


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